Less than a quarter of SMSF practitioners have witnessed member rollover requests from an Australian Prudential Regulation Authority-regulated fund being processed within the required time frame under the SuperStream system, a recent poll has revealed.
The results from a survey conducted during the latest Accurium technical webinar showed only 22 per cent of respondents had actually experienced a superannuation rollover completed using SuperStream within the mandated time period stipulated by the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Regulations.
According to the regulations, a superannuation rollover request must be processed via the SuperStream regime no later than three business days from the time the request is received by the trustee(s) or from the time any additional information needed to process the transaction is received.
Further, 22 per cent of those polled indicated their SuperStream rollovers had taken more than 14 days to complete, with 16 per cent saying the process had taken less than 14 days but more than seven days, and another 40 per cent admitting their experience was for the benefit transfers to occur within seven days.
“Anecdotally I’ve heard a number of occasions or circumstances where [a SuperStream] rollover had taken a lot longer than it is supposed to,” Accurium managing director Doug McBirnie confirmed.
SMSFs were only incorporated into the SuperStream system from 1 October this year and given the infancy of the process, these teething problems are to be expected, Accurium head of education Mark Ellem acknowledged.
“We’re only into the second month of this so we’ve still got a number of issues to deal with and we’re seeing the tax office constantly updating its website around issues about SuperStream rollovers,” Ellem said.
He pointed out the result was not necessarily terrible.
“The majority [of practitioners are seeing rollovers completed] outside of three but within seven [days], so not missing it by too much. That three-business-day rule can be quite onerous on a fund, including an SMSF,” he noted.
